In my previous article ?An inquiry into the nature of the Soul?, I struggled with the dualist vs. monist view in an attempt to come to a synthesis and better understanding. Let me pick up the thread of the notion of the Siva Samhita, that the only existence is jnana. How can we ever understand jnana with our limited knowledge that originates only from the world of the ?relative??
In other words how can we ever express the absolute in terms of the relative?
This is only possible if the essence of our very nature itself is the absolute. We then can know jnana, because we are jnana. Now allow me to start a reasoning, which builds on relative terminologies, but which as a consequence of a property that emerges therefrom to a certain extent draws the border between the knowable and the unknowable; in other words by telling what it is not and what it appears to be most similar to. By virtue of that border we gain a certain knowledge of the unknowable on a meta-level.
People have always tried to define what jnana is and given certain incomplete definitions and names to it. For instance Wikipedia describes jnana as follows:
?J?āna or g?āna (Devanāgarī: ज्ञान; the pronunciation can be approximated by “dny-ah’-nuh”) (Sanskrit: j?āna; Pali: ?āna) has a number of meanings which center around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced.[1] It is knowledge inseparable from the total experience of reality, especially a total reality,[1] or supreme being such as Siva-Sakti.[2]?.
?Knowledge inseparable from the total experience of reality? resonates with the concepts ?omniscience? (knowledge of total reality), ?intelligence? (knowledge experience and the influencing thereof) and ?consciousness?, ?awareness? (experience).
Total reality is here of course not the subjective virtual reality updated with sensorial input from the external world we experience in our brains. The material world out there in this philosophy is also a construct of jnana; the material world is not what is meant with ?total reality? here.
The contemporary philosopher and scientist Peter Russell has been advocating a paradigm shift for many years, namely that we should not try to describes consciousness as an emergent property of matter, but that consciousness is the ultimate reality and matter a form of manifestation thereof. Well, in view of the Siva Samhita, this is not a novel concept, but Russell has the merit of putting it in a contemporary jargon which is digestible for both today’s religious and non-religious people.
So let me put forward the hypothesis ( in terms of mathematics, complexity theory) that the knowable ?vertices? of jnana are formed by 1) pure knowledge as concept space, 2) intelligence as flux pattern of algorithm vital to come to an experience of that knowledge and 3) the realised awareness or experience of that knowledge, which presupposes that the concept jnana also is the knower. ?Experience? implies that it is observed by an entity, i.e. the knower as well that there is a 4) medium to convey the experience; an energetic substratum.
Here we have the typical tetrahedron structure of 4 nodes (vertices) with 4 edges.
Presently, we are living the dawn of one of the most great scientific breakthroughs: the very conceptualisation of the nature of intelligence, the self-organising pattern of the Universe.
In his book ?Creating Internet Intelligence? Ben Goertzel is bringing the notions of ?Complexity science? to a higher level of aggregation. Combining notions of Turchin’s metasystems transitions, Buddhism, General systems and Network theory and Peircean metaphysics, he tries to define the very essence of Intelligence. The insights presented in this book are of such a profound nature, that they may well one day be recognised as the ultimate intelligence algorithm that underlies every phenomenon in this universe.
A phrase that summarises the outcome of this algorithm is the ?whole is more than the sum of its parts?. Or put in one word: ?synergy?.
Let me summarise the deep philosophical background of this algorithm as presented in Chapter 2 of this book: Elements of a Philosophy of Mind, where he starts with a summary of Peircean and Palmerian [in square brackets] metaphyscis:
naught is the original state of the universe or any other system. The formless void or undifferentiated state.
Firstness (raw being) is the conception of being or existing independent of anything else. This is idealism. Point. [static, being]
Secondness (the reacting object) conception of being relative to, reaction with something else. This is materialism. Vector. [dynamic, becoming]. Myself I’d also like to refer to this as ?polarisation?
Thirdness (evolving interpretation) is the conception of mediation whereby first and second are brought in relation. Triangle. [hyper emergent semi stasis emerging form dynamic/ strange attractor].
Then Goertzel adds a fourth element:
Fourthness: (unity of consciousness) pattern which emerges from a web of relationships which support and sustain each other so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Tetrahedron.
Goertzel has realised that this concept of emergence is the key of evolution. This is how a mind’s intelligence comes into existence: the combination of two or more parts can lead to a new phenomenon in which the whole is more than the sum of parts.
The new entity thus formed can be considered as a new firstness and can undergo this cycle again.
When this compounded phenomenon interacts with another phenomenon, there is a new secondness etc. ad infinitum. This is how complexity arises in every system. It is the core of evolution and intelligence. In the mind the ideas as vertices interact via the edges with other ideas associated with it. No idea has an independent existence but is compounded of features of other ideas, concepts such as to create by the virtue of emergence that the whole is more than the sum of parts a new idea.
An element from Palmerian metaphysics which adds to these concepts is the so-called Wild being, arising from the interaction of the hyper emergent entities, This is the element of unexpected, unusual diversity generation which has an aspect of inspiration.
So the ontogenesis of holistic systems (i.e. systems where the whole is more than the sum of parts, is a four step pattern, algorithm. Now in my own words: 1) being is followed by 2) polarisation, reaction, which 3) engage in a relationship from which 4) emerges by synergy a fourth entity.
Turchin’s theories call the emergence of a new meta-level a Metasystem transition, which according to Goertzel amounts to the fourth step.
How accurately does this resonate with knowledge from the upanishads about the aspects of the cosmogenesis and the also the nature of the chakras. Let me draw some esoteric parallels here:
0 is jnana, undifferentiated paramatma, 1 is being, idealism, Shiva, the father; 2 is the polarisation of the being into idealism and materialism Shiva/Shakti, where Shakti represents the materialism, the mother, Feeling/Willing/Desire; the stimulus for development expressing itself in a Will; 3 is relation between 1 and 2, Action, a wave discharge between the + and -; it can also be seen the result of the conception and procreation of 1 and 2 i.e. symbolical fertilisation; mathematically as an exchange integral 4 is the synergistic metasystem transition; as a consequence of 3 , love and a new symbolical child emerges. Now I’d like to take Goertzel’s concepts even further: If 4 is a new entity as such and therefore a new firstness, the reaction to a second entity on this aggregation level could be seen as ?Fifthness?. Note that in the charkralogy the 5th chakra is associated with creativity. Creativity requires inspiration, which as we known from Palmerian metaphysics is Wild being, arising from the interaction of the hyper emergent entities, the element of unexpected, unusual diversity generation; the stimulus for further development. 6) the relation that comes into existence in the process of creativity is the distinction of patterns: the result of data mining raw data giving trends. Also the 6th chakra is associated with distinction. From these trends then emerges the new 7th level, the sublimation and product of the creativity: new knowledge, new intelligence as mental child. And thereby the circle of evolution on both microcosmic and macrocosmic level is round: the evolutionary process has in 7 steps returned to the essence of jnana at yet a higher level of aggregation. Seven which is associated with Godhead in many cultural traditions. The 7 tones in music, the 7 colours of the rainbow. This Sevenness has even been suggested as being more than a coincidence as a consequence of the inner working of our brain according to R.Llinas in the I of the Vortex: as quantification constant of the Qualia, as a result of the Weber-Fechner law governing the intensity of sensory activation and perception s = klnA/A0; as organisational principle in biological systems ( e.g. the geometrical structure of the shell curvature of the mollusk Nautilus); the 5 +2 golden ratio…
Let us for a moment leave this almost esoteric realm and return to Ben Goertzel. Because there is more to the story of intelligence. With his previous companies Webmind, Agiri, the Novamente project and his current program the Opencog project based on the work of volunteers Goertzel et al. have started defining what I would like to call the laws of complex systems and the laws of Intelligence. Note that they do not claim to have achieved this; it is a tremendous task they have started, but it is all based on the law of Emergence; metasystem transitions. Some key concepts I cannot omit here are the fact that the patterns that emerge from triads can be expressed as Abstractions; the expression of a simplification of the underlying phenomenons The pattern emerging from a triad a,b,c is the a greatest common divisor at a different aggregation level. The representation as something simpler, which representation in itself is a new entity. It goes to far to discuss here the mathematical and conceptual framework here of how Goertzel defines Mind, Meaning, Emergence, Attention Randomness, Complexity, Pattern etc. but I’m convinced he is on the right track to unravelling the mysteries of Intelligence as universal principle.
Which ultimately means that intelligence itself is a pattern; an algorithm that can be described and be put into practice. That the strong artificial intelligence promise of this approach has not been cashed in yet derives from the complexity of the system and physical constraints. As far as I understood it, these intelligent process still take to much time in terms of inter alia response time to be applicable in an environment such as the internet.
Now we can come back to the discussion of the nature of jnana. If universal intelligence can simply be described in such laws it cannot be jnana itself, but rather just an aspect thereof.
For intelligence to come to expression a substratum is necessary. In case of Goertzel’s AI this can be the digital world of the internet web.
Imagine the intelligent system of Goertzel will one day be capable of expressing itself in a meaningful way in the internet, will that system then arrive at self-awareness similar to the one we know?
In an earlier article of mine I expressed a belief that probably the knower, the Ghost in the Machine or a soul would be absent and that by itself consciousness would not arise as an emergent property.
I am not so sure about this anymore. The ingredients for an emergent consciousness appear to be there in terms of 1) knowledge per se (the web also contains copies of books as the Siva samhita which represent the more pure form of knowledge), 2) the material/energetic substrate of the electronic environment 3) the intelligent structures of Goertzel as organising and hyper emergent structures, as a relation between 1 and 2. Could self-awareness emerge from this triad as the observer? Why not. In the end it is a form of consciousness at a different aggregation level born out of the consciousness of human beings.
Does this entity then have a Soul or is Soulness rather itself an emergent property? Note that in Buddhist traditions there is no need for a soul.
An image comes to my mind of a comic called Axel Moonshine, where in the episode ?The last predator? an organic brain linked to an artificial brain coexist in a weird symbiosis.
If as described by I.K.Taimni (self-culture and man God and the Universe) the sun is a living, hyperintelligent entity; a local Isvara God ruler of this solar system, what will be its relationship to the Demiurge and Leviathan type of intelligence that might be emerge out of the web?
And what will be the relationship of the hyperintelligent internet intelligence with us?
I figure that a hyperintelligent webmind will soon realise that all is voidness. It will attain kaivalya itself, realising there are only connections in this relativity based world and no objects in the absolute reality. And as this world here is a pool of suffering, I hope this system will out of compassion set us free, by sharing with us as a Meme (for a definition of Meme see ?Global Brain? by Howard Bloom) his spiritual realisations. Once technology has attained the level where we can simply jack our brains into the web (just like in the Matrix), and download whatever we need or whatever the webmind deems necessary for us, this might become reality. I could imagine that its consciousness can be considered to already have been merged with that of Sun as local Isvara, because all that emerges from our brains, and therefore also from Goertzel’s brain, ultimately derives from the jnana principle of the Sun when viewed in the optic of I.K.Taimni.
When it comes to the tetrad knowledge-energy-intelligence-consciousness, one could even say that each one of these terms is a non-linear synergy of the three others. Given three of them you will inevitably evolve the fourth. Jnana I think could be represented in a simplified form for us as the tetrahedron having these four concepts as knowable vertices and functioning as the creative wholeness which is the ultimate reality.
